Speaker and Setup Questions

[happy4ya]

I have a 2013 Grand Caravan and I'm looking to hook it up with some good sound. I have a Pioneer NEX double DIN head unit, and I was planning on putting some new 3, 4, or 5-way 6x9's in the doors and also in the back, and some new 3.5" coaxials in the dashboard. I was going to get a Alpine PDR-F50 (85RMS x 4) for the four 6x9's and a 45 x 2 I already have for the dash speakers. And I already have a sealed box with 2 Rockford Fosgate Punch 10" subs with an old US Acoustics 200 x 2 to drive them.

Since there are so many speakers to choose from, I went into one of the stereo shops in my area to try to listen to some different 6x9's before buying, and after telling the guy what I was looking to do, he told me instead of coaxials in the front, he would do some Alpine R-S69C.2 6x9 components in the doors and put the tweeters from that component set up in the dash where the 3.5's go, and a pair of Alpine R-S69.2 coaxials in the rear panels, and I should drop my 200 x 2 amp and use an Alpine (yes they are a big Alpine shop) PDX-V9 5 channel amp to run everything. (100RMS x 4 and 500RMS x 1).

Part of me feels like he is just trying to push some pretty expensive equipment on me, and part of me knows that it is some good stuff so I'm looking for some input.

I have 2 questions, and the first is about the front setup. I know it's usually not recommend to spread the components too far apart or they don't sound right but he said that he had done this plenty of times, and in my van they are not spread too far and the tweeters bouncing off the dash would blend nicely with the 6x9 woofers low in the doors and it would sound great. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this compared to doing full range speakers in the doors and also on the dash. I know you lose some of the highs low in the door, but I can still hear plenty with the stock setup so I'm not sure if losing that from the doors will be good or if it's going to sound unbalanced.

The next question is about dropping my amp and using the 500 x 1 on the Alpine amp for my sub box. A lot of people have told me that these newer class D amps don't sound as good as the old AB amps I have, but everything I have used in the past has always been AB so I haven't heard any systems with D amps yet. The Alpine amp does 500RMS @ both 4 ohms and 2 ohms, so I can run my existing subs in parallel and do the 2 ohm load. I know stereo is not 100% necessary for subs, but it’s the difference between 200 watts per speaker stereo (AB), or 500 x 1 mono - 250 per speaker (D).

I'm not opposed to the guys recommended setup as the single amp would make the install MUCH easier, but the 2 sets of speakers and the 5 channel amp will cost quite a bit more than what I was planning. Those Alpine speakers are pretty pricey, and the amp is about $600. As much as I would love to do custom stuff, it is a work van and I have no idea how much longer it's going to last so I don't want to go too nuts. The stock speakers are cheesy paper cone, full range factory speakers and just the extra power from the Pioneer unit along the equalizer made them sound pretty damn good . If I could recreate that but louder and with proper low end to match I'd be happy. I’m really into clean well balanced sound. I go from Metallica, to rap, to dance music, to classic rock, to freestyle (pretty everything except for country).

Sorry for the long post, but if anyone makes it through it, any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ToNasty]

A component set ran active only in front sub in the rear and a 5ch amp.  Make sure the amp has a full setting and the headunit has some sort of decent equalizerwith time allignment

 

 

[bmwking]

32 minutes ago, ToNasty said:

A component set ran active only in front sub in the rear and a 5ch amp.  Make sure the amp has a full setting and the headunit has some sort of decent equalizerwith time allignment

 

 

i feel like rear fill may come in handy in a minivan where you're likely to have rear passengers.  right?

[happy4ya]

3 hours ago, bmwking said:

i feel like rear fill may come in handy in a minivan where you're likely to have rear passengers.  right?

Yes, I do drive family around, and I also do uber/lyft so I do want decent sound in the back.  I am ok with just doing some decent 6x9's in the rear and focusing most of my money/effort on the front and subs.